How to Deadhead Roses

Deadheading roses is one of the easiest forms of rose care but gardeners often neglect to do this. It’s easy to forget to deadhead your roses particularly when the season advances and the roses have been blooming for quite a long time.

As the weather becomes hotter, deadheading seems to be forgotten. This is a pity because there are several reasons why we should deadhead our roses regularly.

What is deadheading?

Deadheading is what it’s name implies. It simply means removing the dead rose head from the bush. Some people just pull the spent rose off the bush but this isn’t the best way as it leaves a naked stalk on the plant which tends to die back.

An easy way to deadhead roses

I have found an easy and effective way to deadhead my roses. But I only do this when the roses have been newly watered and the sap has risen well up into the stems.

To deadhead I hold the base of the stalk between the thumb and forefinger of my left hand and then with a quick one-two back and forth movement with my right hand I snap off the rose head neatly together with the short stalk that holds it up. In this way all the leaves are preserved and the rose will soon flower again.

Why should we deadhead roses?

Firstly, the rose bushes look much neater when we remove the spent roses from the bush. A rose bush looks tatty when there are fading roses among the buds and full blown flowers.

Secondly the rose needs every bit of energy, food and water for its growth and future flowering ability. A great deal of energy goes into the making of rose hips. If you allow the spent heads to remain on the bush all the energy is diverted from the growth of your rose bush towards the development of seeds.

If you remove spent roses from the bush, the rose is encouraged to flower more frequently by replacing the flowers that you have removed.